The best way to stop colon cancer is awareness, as a new report has found that an increase in screenings has lead to a decrease of the illness among people older than 50.

According to USA Today, the rate of colon cancer for people at least 50 years old has fallen 30 percent over the past 10 years. Researchers of the study, published in the journal Cancer, give the credit to an increase in colonoscopies.

The checkup is recommended for anyone older than 50 with at least an "average" risk of colon cancer, which is the third-most diagnosed type of the illness. Colon cancer is also most common in the developed world, accounting for 60 percent of the globe's cases in 2008.

From 2000 to 2010, the percentage of people aged 50 to 64 who saw their doctor for a colonoscopy leaped from 19 percent to 55 percent. Colonoscopies are so important because it can allow a doctor to detect and remove polyps before they become malignant.

"This is one of the great public health success stories of the decade," Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer at the American Cancer Society, told USA Today.

Doctors and experts across the country are stressing the importance of colon cancer screenings because poor physical activity is believed to be exacerbating the problem. Among Americans younger than 50, the Wall Street Journal reported, the rate of colon cancer has risen about one percent per year.

The researchers said this was most likely due to an increase in obesity and lack of physical activity and overall healthy lifestyles.

"People with diabetes or prediabetes have a higher amount of circulating insulin, which stimulates tumor growth. It acts like Miracle-Gro for precancerous polyps in the colon," the American Cancer Society's Chief Medical Officer Otis Brawley told the WSJ.

Perhaps a minor contributor at least has been the Affordable Care Act, which covers colon cancer screenings at no cost to the patient. However, if a doctor finds a polyp that needs to be removed, further screenings would require a copay if they could no longer be considered preventative.

Still, the initial screening is always the most important one, according to one expert.

Not involved in the study, James Church, a colorectal cancer surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, told the WSJ, "Every time a patient with colon cancer comes into my office, I think, 'This didn't need to happen. Why didn't this person get a colonoscopy five years ago?'"